


It Takes Two To Make One Whole

by steak_soda_sucks_at_life



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, M/M, Rated Teen for a little gorey descriptions, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29139915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steak_soda_sucks_at_life/pseuds/steak_soda_sucks_at_life
Summary: The last thing Gundham Tanaka expected was to find anything of interest in an abandoned theme park. Much less exactly what he was looking for...---Rated Teen for some descriptions of gore and graphic ideas!
Relationships: Nanami Chiaki/Sonia Nevermind, Soda Kazuichi/Tanaka Gundham
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter is a prologue, so it's rather short. Um,,,, yeah. This is my attempt at sticking Soudam into my current weird interest - abandoned parks 'n shit.  
> Enjoy!

Fallen leaves crunched under the soles of heavy boots, creating an eerie echo in the evening breeze of autumn. The sun sat on the horizon, casting a bright orange glow across the sky, fading into softer hues of pink, and violet on the east horizon - where the moon would show itself soon enough.  
Gundham brushed a stray hair out of his eyes, furrowing his brows (or...you know) slightly at the tablet in his hands. With a defeated sigh, he slid the device into a bag, slinging it back over his shoulder. When he'd decided to come out and look around an abandoned place like this, he'd expected….well, he wasn't really sure what he'd expected, but it hadn't been this overwhelmingly dull.   
The crimson glow of the sunset cast an almost ghostly glow over the place, glinting off the metal of a rusted coaster and right into his eyes.  
Gundham retrieved his cell phone, swiftly typing a message to someone - Peko - telling her he would not be returning to the apartment that night, before shutting it off and sliding the phone into the inner pocket of his coat.

A chilly breeze brushed his face, sending a shiver down his spine. His gaze panning the immediate area of the park. Gundham stood in the archway of the only gate that hadn't collapsed, the only entrance to the park now. As his gaze swept to the left, he could have sworn, for just a moment, he had seen neon green, up atop the roof of a crumbling stand. ….A trick of the light, perhaps, or it was just so horrifically lonely that his mind was already doing somersaults to create some semblance of civility here. Whatever neon green had to do with that…  
Further into the park he travelled, the sky growing darker, and the wind growing colder. Leaves crunched obnoxiously under his boots, and despite knowing not another soul was here, the sound could not have been more unnerving if it tried. The breeze brushing past whooshed between old, rickety boards in just such a way that he swore he could have heard the gentle whispers of a young lady. Harshly striking the metal poles of the stagnant attractions sounded like an angry boy's sharp tongue.   
Gundham shivered involuntarily, this entire place was beginning to get to him. Spirits did not worry him, not did the supernatural. In fact, those ideas were precisely what had brought him here. Many rumors could be dug up from the internet about some 'urban legend' that people had been murdered here, and the victims' remains could still be found tossed underneath the attractions. He didn't believe those, of course, people would say what they pleased regardless of its truthfulness. No, his interest was in the possibility of this simply being a haunting place for some wayward souls. But, as it were, the place was just….well, haunting. Every footstep seemed to be doubled, but there was no one to be seen. The voices that the wind carried, they came from nowhere. The blanket of numbing cold that radiated from all the structures, eerily rising towards the sky and casting darkness on the ground below.  
Gundham was rarely worried by anything, but this place was enough to give near anyone the creeps.

Approaching a row of buildings, he retrieved a camera from somewhere within the bag. These buildings he had yet to see, most other structures had photos uploaded to the forum he had discovered in his research. He thought to snap a few, and perhaps upload them to the collection once he returned to the apartment.   
Peko was not going to like his using camera film for this. Not only did she find such a place absurdly disturbing, but a waste of time to even search for. They were in no way related, but she treated him as if she were his older sister, always fussing over him and his ways. He'd learned that she had once had someone who was as close as a brother to her, but he had mysteriously vanished some years ago. He wondered, if he found the presences of spirits here, perhaps he would be able to contact this missing loved one of Peko's at some point.  
The pictures were taken quickly, almost just in time before the light became near nonexistent. Now, it was time to make use of the flashlight he always had on hand.  
The floodlight grade bulb illuminated the area in one click. And somehow, the glow of the flashlight made the entire park ever so much scarier. Gundham felt worry beginning to pool somewhere within his chest, and for no particular reason, either.  
He needed to find a suitable place to bed down for the night. Originally, he had planned to explore here through the night and return home in the morning, but even with his floodlight flashlight, it was just too dark. Chills ran up and down his body in his search, but eventually, he happened upon the funhouse. It was clear it had once been printed with strawberries and grapes, but now was no more than a hazard, really, peeling paint and one whole half collapsed in on itself. But this side seemed sturdy enough for a night.   
Luckily, Gundham had plenty of supplies to make a comfortable enough sleeping space on the floor just inside the entrance to the building. He would have liked to set up a tent, but he hadn't thought to bring one. There was no real privacy here. Despite there..not being anyone else around. Why did that fact bother him so? He had never been a social person, but the lack of people made everything about this place absolutely terrible.

Trying to sleep was stressful. The slightest movement got ahold of his attention, no matter of his eyes were all the way open, or ever so barely slit open. It wasn't going to be very restful, but he finally managed to drift off.   
Luckily, the sleep remained dreamless, if it hadn't, who was to know what kind of dreams would present themselves.   
●  
When the morning sun streamed through the slits in the wood, the light of course hit right in Gundham's face. At least it was a gentler awakening than Peko waltzing into his bedroom every morning to shake him awake.   
He yawned, pulling an arm out of his sheets on the floor to stretch. A floor was not the most comfortable place to sleep, but it worked for a night. He sighed, slowly opening his eyes to the bright sunlight. Wait….wait a minute…

Those were yellow sneakers. Attached to legs.


	2. At My Fingertips, Or The End Of The Earth?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gundham has a strange encounter, with an even stranger stranger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tbh I don't know what I'm doing, just fooling around at this point. It's fun tho, I enjoy this.  
> I should probably mention that I'm really bad at pacing, so sorry if things get a little wonky at times.  
> I uh. Also didn't proofread this so. You'll pardon any typos thanks.

Gundham leapt to his feet and let out a yell, an unholy sound that even he didn't know he could produce before then. Another, more high pitched scream matched his, and the person attached to those gaudy yellow sneakers stumbled back, startled out of their mind by Gundham's sudden noise.  
A man, roughly around his age. Dressed in an unzipped blue sweatshirt overtop a simple shirt in the most horrid neon green color Gundham had ever seen. To top it off, as if he had tried to keep up his theme of bright ass colors, his hair, tucked under a blue baseball cap, was dyed a bright pink.  
But the most striking thing about the man - because yes, there was a far more striking attribute than the ridiculous amount of conflicting colors on him - was the...blood.  
It looked fresh, still flowing down over the right side of his face from a large, open wound just by his hairline.  
That side of his head looked like it had been bashed in, hit by something quite heavy, blood was dribbling from the corner of his mouth, and the one eye, just under the gash, had lost nearly all its color and didn't focus right, looking anywhere but where the other one did.  
To put it in simpler terms, the man looked like he should be dead, his whole head was a wreck.

"Fool mortal, what are you doing here? Are you in need of medical assistance? Your life essence is running dry as I speak!" Gundham had put on a stance that apparently seemed threatening, because the neon clad man put up his hands defensively.  
"H-Huh? Who's he-?" The man stole a glance behind him, putting on a very confused expression. "Who?" He mumbled, as if he was talking to himself.  
"You, fiend! Answer me!" Gundham demanded, taking a step forward. The stranger let out a weird squeak, waving his hands in front of him.  
"You can see me?!" He blurted, clamping his teeth down on his lip immediately after. Abnormally pointy teeth, Gundham observed.  
"Why should I not, fool?!" Gundham shot back, only turning this into some sort of shouting match.  
"Cause nobody can!" The strange man took another step back, tripping on a loose board and ending up sprawled on his back in the doorway with a yelp. "Fuck!"  
Gundham was a bit taken aback. Nobody could see this man? Maybe he'd been hit in the head too hard, he must be delusional. This man needed some sort of medical assistance, but how had he not called for help yet.  
"Do not fear, mortal, I shall help you," Gundham bent over to take this man's hand, pulling him to his feet. His hands were icy, cold and pale, and some of his fingers seemed a lot looser than they should be.  
"Huh? What're you even talking about? I've been dead for like thirty years!" The stranger, now seeming slightly agitated more than anything, pulled his freezing hand away, shoving it in the pocket of his jeans.  
Gundham just...paused. The man had spewed this information so quickly and casually, as if it should have been the obvious thing to say. But...he did look like a dead person reanimated.  
No! That had to be wrong, that wasn't how it worked!

"So...what's your name, huh? You might be here a while, and if you can see me-"  
"What do you mean?" Gundham interrupted, trying not to focus on the whole idea of this guy being dead. "I need not remain here, I do not plan to remain here another cycle of darkness,"  
The guy blinked. ...Sort of, his right eyelid seemed swollen and wouldn't close properly.  
"Did ya come from the dark ages or something? Whatever...the uh...the entrance is kinda blocked off. Until Kamukura-san can fix it, you're trapped," He explained, rubbing a space at the back of his head. "Name's Kazuichi Souda, I used to work here!" He finally introduced himself, holding out a pale hand. His fingernails were dirty, and his calloused hands looked as though they hadn't seen the light of day in months.  
Gundham, almost reluctantly, tentatively took the offered hand, and nearly had his arm shaken out of its socket. Gee, for a guy who was supposedly dead, he had a lot of energy. "You- May refer to me as Gundham Tanaka, the Supreme Overlord of Ice,"  
Kazuichi, finally letting go of Gundham's hand with his own, disturbingly clammy one, tapped a finger against his chin.  
"Well that's a new one, I'll just call ya Tanaka-kun for now," Kazuichi shrugged, resting his hands in the pockets of his jacket.  
"....Very well," Gundham knelt down, beginning to place things back into his bags. Kazuichi's head appeared not far from his, and when Gundham looked up, he nearly jumped, finding the man bent over with his back in the most unnatural position. Bent so much further than it should have been.  
"What?" Kazuichi queried, clearly confused by Gundham's sudden staring.  
"You- your-" He stammered. This man had to be some sort of anomaly, no creature that so casually contorted themself into back breaking positions could be human. Was he perhaps a demon?  
"Broken," Kazuichi stated matter-of-factly, straightening up and holding up his hands, wiggling his fingers in all sorts of ways that made Gundham cringe. "Almost nothin' in here is intact, heh, it kinda happens when you fall off a rollercoaster,"  
Gundham frowned. The longer he hung around, the creepier this thing got.  
"Sooo…" Kazuichi leaned against the doorway of the funhouse, absentmindedly sticking a thumb in his mouth, chewing on the nail. "You never told me why you're here," He prodded, one pink eye settling its gaze on Gundham.  
Gundham slung his bag over his shoulder, staring across at Kazuichi and unintentionally allowing a rather uncomfortable silence to fall there.  
"...Weeellll-?" Kazuichi poked again, rubbing his cheek, and smudging blood more across his face.  
"Purely out of curiosity, nothing more to my bring here, fiend," Gundham disclosed quietly, thinking that would be the end of it.  
"So you're not here 'cause of the deaths?" Kazuichi had the comeback almost immediately. Not only did the question momentarily dumbfound Gundham, but it was clear it was no rhetorical question, Kazuichi was serious about getting an answer.  
"No….I was not aware deaths had occurred in this place," Gundham frowned, and Kazuichi looked thoughtful. He waved a hand as an indication to follow, and hopped out of the funhouse, out to the concrete path outside. Gundham was a bit reluctant, really, but made his way through the doorway, following this strange man into the open air of the day.

Gundham couldn't help but observe a very odd fact as he followed Kazuichi, the fact that he didn't seem to disturb the physical world at all. Leaves didn't crunch under his shoes, the wind didn't do a thing to his hair, and if he moved far enough ahead, he seemed to fade, begin to go opaque and simply vanish into thin air.  
Maybe, just maybe, he really had died here.  
Or maybe Gundham was dead, and this was hell.  
"Ya never wondered why this place shut down?" Kazuichi asked, tossing a glance over his shoulder, his one dead eye locking with Gundham's gaze for a brief moment before he looked ahead once more.  
"Whatever do you mean?"  
"Well, there had to be a reason, right? I should know, I ran maintenance on this place day in 'n day out!" Kazuichi snorted, a really gross sound, considering it didn't seem like any of his bodily functions worked the way they were supposed to. "But it shut down cause people died here. The park was deemed too dangerous and yadda yadda yadda….you get it,"  
Gundham nodded, solemnly, making a valiant attempt to properly process what he was being told.  
"The outside world was cut off...because mortals' lives came to an abrupt halt," He reiterated, of course in his own pattern of speech. It seemed to take Kazuichi a minute to translate, but he agreed, with a slow 'yeeess..'.  
"Anyway," Kazuichi continued, moving way too fast for Gundham's liking. "We gotta get you to Kam-"  
"So you are a ghost, then," Gundham interrupted, needing to know this. Kazuichi stopped, quite quickly, allowing Gundham to accidentally walk into him. He didn't budge, and the collision sent a chill through Gundham's entire frame.  
"....what did you...say..?" Kazuichi turned his head.  
Not just any turn, it was only the head, horrible, gut-wrenching cracks coming from the grinding bones in his neck. For once, the pale, dead eye focused, not by chance, on purpose. Gundham could have sworn his heart stopped beating. What on earth could he have said. "You should know, Gundham Tanaka, ghosts aren't real…" He returned his focus to the road ahead of them, as stiff as a headstone- no, that was a terrible comparison to make.

The rest of the walk was uncomfortably silent, only the leaves under Gundham's feet breaking the steady, heavy weight of the quiet. Towards one of the entrance gates, he eventually realized. What on earth had he said to make Kazuichi suddenly go silent? There were plenty of possibilities, but none of them seemed to make any sense.  
Gundham wouldn't push it, he supposed, if this was some sort of tricky spirit, he didn't want to invoke its wrath upon himself.  
Eventually, they reached the south gate, and Kazuichi sped up, jogging ahead and seemingly disappearing, melding into the clear autumn air. Gundham, not wanting to be left behind, picked up the pace and followed, nearly missing where Kazuichi had stopped at the ticket booths.  
"Mortal!" Gundham called, followed by a huff. "What are you doing?" He made his way to where the other man stood.  
Kazuichi pressed a finger to his lips, peering around the side of the booth to the window, which was boarded up.  
"Crap, he didn't put the sign up," Kazuichi muttered, frowning. "Oi! Kamukura! Come out here, you got to meet someone!"  
Gundham said nothing, unsure of what he was meant to think of this Kamukura. Kazuichi huffed, leaning against the door frame to wait, glaring at the door like it was the problem here.  
"Can you not simply knock?" Gundham asked, receiving a confused look for a moment, before it dawned on Kazuichi what he was asking.  
"Oh, yeah no, no cheese there. I can't directly affect the physical world, but it can affect me, ya get it? Here-" He raised a hand and knocked a fist against the door a few times. Nothing, no sound. Only silence. How odd….  
"I see, that does seem to be in concurrence with what I had observed before," Gundham nodded, watching the gears turn in Kazuichi's head a moment before he understood.  
"Uh, right, I think…."

"What is it you want, Souda?" A person had appeared inside the door of the ticket booth, glancing from Kazuichi, up to Gundham. Long, black hair framed striking red eyes, and Gundham stiffened, slightly wary of them.  
"There you are, dude!" Kazuichi grinned, immediately slinging an arm over this person's wide shoulders. Gundham cringed, almost feeling the chill wash over his own form. "Listen listen, Tanaka here is alive like you, and he can see me too!" Kazuichi explained, jabbing a finger at Gundham.  
The dark haired man looked between the two of them, glancing at Kazuichi, then staring long and hard at Gundham, scrutinizing the man under his gaze.  
"I see, how very uninteresting, why do you need me to know of this?" He asked, sliding the red eyes back over to meet one pink one.  
"Uh, cause he's gotta get outta here at some point, and I need ya to clear the gate, silly," Kazuichi explained as if this were a perfectly normal conversation.  
'Kamukura' shrugged him off, stepping towards Gundham.  
"Izuru Kamukura, who are you?" The question was short, not so sweet, and right to the point.  
"You may call me...Gundham Tanaka," Gundham introduced, half expecting Izuru to nearly pop his arm out of the socket like Kazuichi had, but behind the strands of dark hair, Izuru only pursed his lips ever so slightly, never taking his eyes off Gundham.  
"Very well then, Tanaka, I will have cleared the entrance within the week. Souda will see to it you are given proper accommodations for your stay," Izuru left no room for argument, quickly and quietly retreating into the ticket booth and shutting the door.  
"...Reclusive," Gundham commented, wondering how a person could live like that. "Does he mean to put it off until the end of the week?" He asked, looking back at Kazuichi, who shook his head vigorously.  
"Nuh-uh, Kamukura's not a slacker. He's a talented guy, but only one guy, it'll take some time to clear the entrance so you can get outta here," He explained, circling the ticket booth and jogging across the asphalt to the other booth, one with the window broken and the door wide open. Gundham followed, so many questions floating about his head.  
"What is a person doing, remaining in a place such as this?" He stood outside the doorway while Kazuichi disappeared inside the little building, checking the inside for who knows what.  
"Oh, Kamukura, ya mean? His big brother died here," He offered casually, leaning over the front shelf to the glass, rolling up a sleeve, and pressing a hand to the broken edge. "He's here to….uh, actually, it's probably better if Hinata tells you himself," Kazuichi shook out his hand, multiple punctures now lining the palm from the glass, but no blood despite how deep the cuts seemed to be.  
"There are more mortals here?" Gundham asked, rather bewildered to hear there might be even more people living here. How did anyone find this an appealing place to spend their days?  
"Well….sorta? You'll see, just chillax for a bit." Kazuichi turned to face him, hands on hips. "How's this place to spend the nights? I can show ya where to get a board to cover up the window, and if ya just set a cot up in here, you should be good to go for a while,"  
Gundham took a look around the tiny building, adjusting the strap of his bag.  
"This is acceptable," He nodded, although the expression on his face was impossible to read in a positive light.  
"...Okay, but if ya need anything in here then just yell at me, m'kay? Actually- that's a bad idea, I'll hear ya, just don't yell-" Kazuichi shoved a hand in his jacket pocket, lifting the other hand to fiddle with one of his earrings - a screw shaped one. As if the habit were contagious, Gundham also lifted a hand to brush against his earring, dangling by the edge of his scarf.

"So-!" Kazuichi started again, breaking the awkward silence that had again fallen between them. "I gotta take you to meet the others, it's been a long time since any of us have seen anybody from your side!"  
Gundham frowned, trying to make sense of that. His side? What was that supposed to mean?  
"My s-" Gundham was about to inquire about that particular choice of words, but freezing fingers against his own cut off that thought immediately, Kazuichi wasting no time in grabbing ahold of him and tugging him off into the decaying jungle that was this park.  
"Kuzuryuu might yell at ya some at first, but he's a good guy. Komaeda's just weird, he'll probably get cozy with you real quick…" Kazuichi had already begun a ramble about whoever it was they were headed to see, but Gundham could hardly listen at this point.  
How on earth did an exploration trip come to….whatever this was? He could only imagine this was the most ridiculous dream he had ever experienced, but even that seemed far fetched, it was very much real.  
"Hey! Tanaka!" A pale, clammy hand in his face snapped him out of that train of thought, and he glanced down into one hot pink eye. "You listening now? I got something important to tell ya," Kazuichi claimed, and having let go of Gundham's hand, folded his arms.  
"Ah, yes, mortal, you have my undivided attention," Gundham assured, 'discreetly' rubbing his palm on the back of his pants.  
Kazuichi didn't seem altogether convinced, but didn't argue the fact, huffing in exasperation and pointing a rather accusatory finger at Gundham.  
"Okay, here's the deal Takana-kun, things are a little different here. I'm sure you noticed. But you're not gonna say anything about the way the others look, you got me?" Kazuichi raised a sharp brow, glaring at Gundham with a look that could be the end of a life if looks could be deadly.  
"I...understand," Gundham swiftly agreed, wondering what about these people could possibly be so out of the ordinary that he'd even need to worry about his own perception of them. Maybe Kazuichi was just out of his mind, and there were no other people, and h- yeah, he should stop thinking about it.  
"Okay, now they're on the other side of that wall. You gotta climb it though," Kazuichi pointed, a few hundred feet off was a brick wall, blocking off what looked like it had been a garden at one point, considering the dying fruit trees that extended above. Ensuring Gundham knew where they were going, Kazuichi grinned, turning on his heel and running towards the wall, taking a flying leap to the ledge. He slammed against it hard, and had Gundham been closer, he could have heard bones being shifted in all sorts of awful ways. The brightly clad man scrambled up, catching footholds in the wall to awkwardly clamber over the top and disappear over the wall. A small chorus of voices met his appearance, but Gundham couldn't quite hear their words. Huh, so there really were people here.  
Breathing a deep sigh, Gundham followed suit. He raced towards the wall, feet pounding the pavement before he sprang off the cement, hooking his fingers over the edge of the wall and hoisting himself up, swinging over the top in one smooth motion.  
He dropped to the ground on the other side, feet meeting with dead, dry grass and a patch of what looked like moss.  
As he turned to face the rest of the area, a voice called "look out!" and on instinct, he held out his arms on defense. Gundham stumbled back as something landed in his arms, and he fumbled with it a moment before getting a good look at the thing.

Of all the- resting in his hands, was a disembodied human head. The edges of his vision went fuzzy almost immediately, and before he lost his senses, he heard a nearby voice muttering. "Ah shit,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kazuichi shouldn't be allowed to dress himself, I'll say that much lmao.  
> Also I'm pretty sure those fuckin shoes he wears are Nikes but idk


	3. The Other Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gundham meets some odd ducks, and has a few strange conversations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, holy shit did this take me too long (watched MHA, so I was distracted with that). I absolutely hate how I wrote this but,,, whatever I guess.  
> Uh. Enjoy I guess? I promise the rest of this will be written better holy fUCk-

"I told him not to say anything!" Frustration laced Kazuichi's voice once it reached Gundham's consciousness. He sounded quite put out, but with what, Gundham couldn't quite remember at the moment.  
"Souda-pop, it's okay," A young lady's voice broke the silence next, and he could practically hear the eye roll through her tone. "Besides, he didn't actually...say anything, you know,"  
A third voice chimed in, this time not far from Gundham's head, a man with a deeper voice and a rather flat tone. "Souda, you bring someone from the other side, and expect them not to be shocked when Nanami-San's head is tossed right at them?" The question was dripping with something akin to sarcasm, as if this man dealt with this sort of tomfoolery on the daily.  
"Yeah, well he didn't have to go and fuckin' pass out on the spot," Another voice added. This one was certainly harder to identify, but it was definitely an angry person.  
"Do be less critical, Fuyuhiko, he has done no harm to you," Another young lady - how many of these people were there?

Finally, he opened his eyes, adjusting to the afternoon sunlight before doing anything else. However, before he could make the conscious decision to sit up, someone bent over him, an awkward smile painted on their pale face.   
"Why good morning, sir," The boy sported fluffy white hair and rather bored looking eyes. At first, Gundham could see nothing out of the ordinary with him, but when he sat up, he took note of the veritable pool of blood that seeped from a gaping hole in the man's stomach, drenching his shirt and pants in the sticky pink liquid and dribbling into the dying grass.  
Gundham blinked once or twice, and tried to assess this. No one with that amount of damage to their person could possibly still be alive. Much less chuckling at his confusion like this one was doing now.  
"He's very much dead," A second person affirmed from Gundham's other side, and he turned to see what face belonged to that flatly toned boy's voice from earlier. A very simple looking lad, with brown hair and a plain white shirt underneath a soft brown jacket. "As am I,"  
And as if to accentuate this statement of fact, the plain boy waved an 'arm'. The appendage had been torn off at the elbow, the severed limb flowing a river of blood through the long sleeve of his jacket.  
"Komaeda, Nagito Komaeda," The one with white hair took up Gundham's hand in his own, the icy feeling of his skinny fingers seeming almost prickly against Gundham's skin. "We already know your name, Mister Tanaka,"  
"Ah…" Was all Gundham could muster the brain power to get out.  
"Nagito," The other boy chastised, waving Nagito's hand from Gundham's with his, before offering him something of an exasperated smile. "I'm sorry, he'll cool down in a while. I'm Hajime Hinata," He introduced. It seemed Hajime was far more self aware than the others Gundham had met so far, somewhat of a self assigned parental figurehead for this group. Considering someone's head had been booted into his arms, he wasn't surprised one of them was a bit tired of their antics.  
"Hey hey,"  
A girl suddenly appeared in Gundham's peripherals, leaning in to give him a good look, one hand resting against her cheek.  
"Sorry about scaring you like that, Sonia and I got carried away," And with that, she let go of her face, and her whole head slid off her neck, landing in her waiting hands. Blood immediately began going everywhere from the severed wound, and Gundham imagined he must have looked quite taken aback, because she hurriedly stood straight and stuck her head back in place.  
"You fiend, how do you not-" Gundham didn't know how to finish that sentence. How was he supposed to even talk to these people? They were all grotesquely mauled in one way or another. It was hard to look at them without staring at their horrific injuries.  
"I'm dead too," The girl stuck out a hand, smiling lazily. "We all are. I'm Chiaki Nanami," Why did they have to be so casual about this…?

After shaking hands with Chiaki, Gundham's attention was drawn to the wild shock of pink hair that had appeared next to Chiaki, the owner looking rather miffed. Gundham quirked a brow, noting that Kazuichi refused to look at him directly.  
"Are you perhaps upset with me, mortal?" Gundham asked, half wanting to poke fun at Kazuichi's quick irritation.  
"No," Kazuichi shot back sharply, and Chiaki reached over to pinch his arm, not even bothering to look at him. With a soft 'ow!', Kazuichi sighed, dropping his gaze. "No, I ain't mad at you, mad at me for not givin' ya a proper warning," He scuffed a shoe against the ground, shaking his head. "Anyway, you should come meet the others, there's just a couple,"  
Gundham's hand, once again, was met with an ice cold set of fingers. By now, he was beginning to grow accustomed to the chill Kazuichi's touch brought. Every time the man touched him, he knew he could expect all the warmth to be taken away from that whole limb immediately, and if it wasn't such an uncomfortable feeling, he might have found it funny.  
Kazuichi practically dragged him off, just a little ways away towards where Gundham had heard that inexplicably angry voice previously. Who on earth would that end up being? He briefly wondered.  
"Sonia!" Kazuichi called, loosing his hold on Gundham's hand and hurrying to a pair on a bench. A very pretty young blonde woman, and a much shorter blonde person just beside her. The girl offered a smile, waving as the pair approached, and quietly eyeing Gundham.  
"Ah, hello, Souda-San!" The alleged 'Sonia' stood up, nudging the boy beside her to do the same, who complied, but begrudgingly.   
Gundham wondered, after giving her the once over, if she might be just as alive as him. He could see no injuries on her person, and she seemed just fine.  
"And a pleasure to meet you as well, mister Tanaka!" One of her slender hands was held out, which he took without a second thought.   
Nope, definitely dead. That same cold, chilling feeling settled over his arm when Gundham took her hand, more alarming considering he had half expected someone with a normal body temperature.  
"My name is Sonia Nevermind! I have been provided the pleasure of knowing your name beforehand," Sonia beamed, returning her hands to her sides, and practically glowing. She was certainly interesting.   
"Fuyuhiko…?" Sonia turned to face the shorter blonde, resting a hand on his shoulder and tilting her head forward ever so slightly. He sighed, a long, drawn out sigh to make it very clear he would much rather be doing anything but this.  
"Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu, don't fucking forget it cause I ain't repeating it," Well gee, wasn't he just a ray of sunshine. How delightful.  
Kazuichi didn't seem at all phased by Fuyuhiko's vulgarity and seeming coldness towards everyone else, a grin brightening his face at Fuyuhiko's introduction.  
"There ya go, man!" He slugged a playful punch to the short man's shoulder, receiving a threatening glare that didn't seem to phase him in the least.   
The group seemed to be relatively close, as per Gundham's rather loose observation of them so far. It was interesting, to say the least, to see a set of people, so far detached from reality in a literal sense, finding company with one another. So...why, in all his years studying the dark arts, dark sorcery, the art of speaking to those of the spirit realm, had he never once come across this before?  
His thoughts were interrupted by Kazuichi's cold shoulder brushing by his arm, a light tap against his upper arm to signal he wanted Gundham to follow.  
"Gotta show you the rest of the garden," The neon clad man announces, making a move to take Gundham's hand, which was not met when the latter pulled his hand away. He wanted to go just a little while without a freezing, clammy hand with loose fingers grasping his. The more he thought about it, the creepier that sounded.  
Following Kazuichi, Gundham had a moment to think.  
Six people, all claiming to be dead. Kazuichi had mentioned falling off a rollercoaster, but what in the nine circles of hell was he doing to let that happen? He seemed dumb enough to get himself in a mess like that, but he was sure there were safety precautions put in place in such places as this.  
"Souda…" He began, trying to steer his own thoughts to something else, his attempt at drawing attention met with a soft hum of acknowledgement from Kazuichi. "Kuzuryuu, pray tell, how-"   
"Poison," Kazuichi interrupted with a shrug, tossing an almost melancholy smile at Gundham. Did he have to keep looking with that dead eye?  
"...Mortal, how do you continue to know what I am to say, before I make it known to you?" Well that...contradicted itself in a way, but Gundham hardly noticed. How did this dead guy know what he was going to ask, several times since they'd met.  
"Uhhh….lucky guess?" Kazuichi replied, a bit sheepish. "I dunno, guess I just feel you'd be curious. Y'know, cause we're all dead,"  
Gundham wished he'd stop being so casual about it like that. It was beginning to get a lot more creepy.

"Anyway," Kazuichi continued. Despite predicting Gundham's curiosity, he seemed painfully oblivious to the man's other thoughts. "This place used to be really pretty, actually. There were fruit trees and stuff, lotsa flowers. I wasn't really allowed in much, but I had to do some pipeline maintenance, and-" Kazuichi continued on rambling, slipping into a more absentminded muttering about the ordeal, and Gundham tuned it out.  
And once again, his thoughts were nagging at him. Was any of this even real? Perhaps, instead, it was some convoluted nightmare that would end with him becoming one of these screwed up zombie people. It seemed so unreal in theory, but…so very real at the same time. The unmistakable chill that came over him when any of these people were even close enough, coupled with the fact that he very distinctly remembered planning this trip for some time, days in advance, Peko advising against it, and offering to help when he wouldn't budge….PEKO.  
He raised a hand to his face, slapping his cheek so hard that Kazuichi, still talking on beside him, faltered, and clammed up.  
"I- Tanaka? Dude, what the hell?" Who slaps their own face like that? But before he could get an answer, Gundham was down on his knees, slinging the bag off his shoulder and rummaging around in it, clearly searching for something - his phone.  
"Helloooo-?" Kazuichi waved a hand, crouching to be at Gundham's level. "What're you lookin' for?"  
"My ungodly device of communication," Came the almost snappy reply, and Kazuichi physically recoiled.  
"Your- uh, what?"  
Gundham paused his search, though his fingers rested against the object in question now, and he pulled it from the bag, holding it up as if that should be the obvious conclusion to draw.   
"I believe you mortals refer to such as a 'mobile phone',"  
A blink. Once, twice; Kazuichi tilting his head just a smidge.  
"A what?"  
Gundham practically glared back into that one confused pink eye, swiftly pressing the power button to switch on his phone. No soap, the battery had drained. How absolutely fantastic.  
"Tanaka, that thing's not a mobile, I...don't know what that is, but - " Kazuichi fiddled around in his pockets, pulling some random pieces of dismantled junk from them and dumping the stuff on the ground, pointing at it and grinning. " - that's a phone. I-I mean I took it apart, but it's one of the first models they came out with! A real advance in tech,"  
Gundham blinked. Judging by the amount of plastic there, the item in question had been a very bulky one when put together. Nothing compared to the slim device held in his hand now. Sighing, and resigning to apologize profusely to Peko once he returned home, she would be worried beyond belief by his lack of communication.  
"You fool, that is but a pile of 'junk', what is it that you mean by proclaiming this is the same as my own means of communication?" Gundham straightened up, placing the strap of his bag back over his shoulder,   
"Junk!?" Kazuichi looked offended, hurriedly gathering his 'junk' back into his pockets and hopping to his feet, not bothering to straighten out the front of his shirt, now creased and half tucked into the waistband of his jeans. "It ain't junk! It's cool stuff! You should loosen up. Here, lemme see that,"  
Without warning, the phone was snatched from Gundham's hand by chilly fingertips that brushed his palm. The man poked his tongue between his teeth as he turned the device over in his hands, poking and prodding at it with his rough fingers and looking utterly bewildered when nothing happened.  
"You will get no further that way, mortal,"  
Kazuichi wasn't listening, his good eye focused like a lazer pointer on the foreign object in hand, still poking at it with one hand.  
"Did you not hear me?" Gundham reached out to take it back, only to have Kazuichi jerk his hands away, giving Gundham a pointed stare.  
"No, I heard ya. But I'm a mechanic, I know how to figure this stuff out!"

The exchange became rather repetitive, but finally Gundham convinced Kazuichi to hand back the phone. It was as icy cold as Kazuichi's hands, and seemed to have accumulated a little moisture from the man's sweaty palms…  
Gundham rubbed the device on his sleeve, and slid it back into his bag, wondering how in the world something so simple would cause such a distraction for them.  
"Do tell, how is it that you have yet to know of such a commonplace tool?" Gundham asked, just getting a shrug in response. Kazuichi raised a hand to rub at the back of his neck, chewing on his lower lip habitually.  
"Cause I been dead for a long time? I dunno, we didn't have stuff like that back when this place was up and running," He explained, ever so casual in dropping the fact he had been here for so long.  
Gundham paused, unsure of how to respond, and ultimately decided it wasn't worth trying to wrap his head around, shaking his head and resigning his curiosity.  
"Very well,"  
Kazuichi grinned, shoving his hands in his pockets and taking off again, leading the way further into the garden. Gundham kept close behind, half wondering what else lay in store for the duration of his time here. How did people from the realm of the dead pass the time? What an odd thing to think about.  
"Oh!" Kazuichi exclaimed suddenly, turning to tug on Gundham's sleeve, pointing just ahead. "This is my favorite spot, sometimes the fruit trees still bloom!"

The area in question was indeed a pretty one.  
A small pond was laid in the center of a slab of disc shaped asphalt, still half full of water. Mostly rain water, and lots of algae, but it held a certain charm to it.  
There were a few stone benches around the asphalt walkway, and behind them in the turnout, was a fenced off section of the garden in which trees had been planted. Mostly fruit trees, and most of them looked dead, but one in particular seemed to be holding to life as desperately as possible, keeping a firm grip on its own life despite being only a tree.  
Oh. Oh...that made sense. No wonder people who no longer had a true connection to the living world would like it here. Even Gundham, who was very much alive, could feel the sort of stability in such a place. The atmosphere was calming, grounding, stable, even.  
"I used to come here on breaks," Kazuichi recounted out of nowhere, earning a sideways brow raise from Gundham. "When I wasn't doin' maintenance or something, I sat around here. It used to be a lot prettier. I mean, it's not half bad now, just was a lot more….y'know, alive?"  
Gundham responded with a soft hum, not entirely certain what would be good to say there. In listening to Kazuichi's little spiel, he detected a hint of some other emotion. It seemed akin to sadness or regret, but for what, that those days had passed? It seemed an odd thing to be upset over the passing of when one has been living here for so long as Kazuichi has.  
"Oh hey, by the way," Kazuichi flashed a grin, poking his elbow into Gundham's side and then folding his arms, smirking up at the taller man. "Who were you gonna talk to on the phone? Got a girlfriend or somethin'?"  
Gundham simply paused, wondering what on earth prompted that.   
"No..?" He stated (although it sounded more like a question), almost tentative. "I reside with a consort of mine, she is much like a mortal sister to me. Since I have not returned to our abode in the time I allotted to do so, she will be concerned for my wellbeing," He explained, giving Kazuichi a pointed look. It took him a minute to actually translate what had been said, but the smirk never left his goofy face.  
"Uh-huh. Well, gotta wonder how an attractive dude like you hasn't got a whole bunch'a gals pretty much at your feet,"

Kazuichi, please learn to filter yourself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm,,, sorry if the ending seems abrupt, I didn't have any more ideas for this chapter. It's kiiinda filler stuff? Since I have some ideas for next chapter? And I wanted to give a basic introduction of the other dead folks, they'll have the spotlight more individually later.


End file.
